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Info When Scrivy Met Twilight (List of stories) << previous scene | Scene 4 | next scene >> Text Over the next few weeks, Twilight Sparkle and Scrivener Blooms fell into an unconscious, fairly regular routine. They would catch one-another in the library, usually in the morning, and then proceed to insult and irritate one-another before often being thrown out together. After numerous complaints, Princess Celestia had mentioned to both ponies that the library staff was getting a little annoyed with their antics, but she hadn't scolded either of them, which relieved Twilight Sparkle and left Scrivener Blooms curious. They weren't friends: in a way, they were almost rivals, engaged in an endless duel to see who could outmatch the other in their verbal warfare. Scrivener drove Twilight insane not just because he was sarcastic and insulting, but because he so good at being sarcastic and insulting; Twilight frustrated Scrivener because she could always find every little hole in his arguments and never missed the tiniest details, making it impossible for him to get away with lying or worming around their arguments. But at times they formed odd truces, too, and over time they'd grown more used to each other and less malicious. The best example of this was one day when Twilight Sparkle had dragged herself through the library, looking exhausted and miserable, and Scrivener hadn't been able to help staring at her as she'd approached the back table he always made sure to take over. Sometimes Twilight took a different table or desk these days, but on this particular day, every other spot had been filled by other stressed-looking students. Twilight flung her things onto the table, then looked sourly over at the earth pony: he had several stacks of books on the table, forming a barrier behind which he had a cola, his writing implements, and a few loose papers. Sammy was curled up on top of one of the piles, snoozing, and the violet mare twitched a bit before asking waspishly: "What if somepony needs those books? What are you even doing here?" "I'm sure plenty of ponies do need these books, actually. Let me guess, you're stressed because of exams?" Scrivener looked up with wry entertainment in his eyes, tilting his head, and Twilight gave him a horrible look, the earth pony clearing his throat and ducking behind his barricade of books. "Alright, forget I said anything. I need these books too, though. Research." In response, Twilight muttered a swear and then emptied her satchel, and the two fell into an awkward, silent stalemate for a while. The violet unicorn read, and Scrivener scribbled notes as he referred every now and then to the papers beside him, until he finally glanced up when Twilight hit the desk with a hoof and visibly trembled. She had a quill beside her, but was digging through her clearly-empty satchel, looking strangely upset as she tried vainly to find an inkwell. Scrivener watched her for a few moments, and then he sighed silently to himself at how upset she looked before calmly hooking his own inkwell with a hoof and sliding it around the table and over to her. Twilight glanced up in surprise, but Scrivener only picked up one of the textbooks from the pile and began to read. The mare smiled faintly at him, studying him for a moment, but then she quickly cast her eyes down and dipped her quill in the ink before rapidly beginning to make notes over the rumpled parchment in front of her. They passed an hour in quiet, and then Scrivener left, leaving the little pot of ink behind. Twilight Sparkle had been thankful for it... more thankful than she wanted to admit. Only a few days later, Scrivener had been humming to himself and walking across the Magic Academy courtyard, Sammy happily trotting through the grasses beside him. Celestia had asked him to do the first reading of the school's anthem himself, and he was looking forwards to it. Not because he enjoyed standing on stage, leaving himself vulnerable to the criticism of others... because he would be standing on stage in front of an army of high-class unicorns, an earth pony that had written an anthem summing up their own school. It nicely fed his ego. He looked back and forth curiously as he strode through the grasses: exams were still going on, and the courtyard was busy today. Unicorns were practicing all kinds of different magic, summoning up weather, levitating objects, and practicing other spells that made Scrivener watch curiously... and perhaps a little enviously, too. But then, as he'd been heading towards the door, a unicorn that was getting frustrated with her magic shook her horn wildly as she tried to mimic her friend's weather spell, and it glowed brightly before there was a loud crackle. Scrivener had enough time to look up before a blast of lightning hammered down from the sky, the earth pony yelling as it tore through the air beside him. He staggered and fell over, then blinked a few times and let out a sigh of relief as he touched his own chest and realized that the powerful blast of lightning had missed. He glared at the unicorn, who was slowly going pale as she and other students stared at him, and then the earth pony muttered: "Goes to show everything I said is true. Come on Sammy... Sammy?" Scrivener Blooms frowned, looking back and forth for his pseudodragon, before his eyes roved down, and his breath caught in his throat, a tremble racing through his body, as he stared at the charred corpse of the reptile, smoke wafting silently towards the sky. The stallion reached slowly forwards... and that was really the last thing he remembered about the day. Apparently he'd picked up his poor lost pet, cradled him, ignored everypony around him, and then somehow still gone inside, still given the speech he was supposed to, but he didn't remember any of it. The next thing he remembered was burying Sammy himself under cover of darkness out in one of the fields. He felt like he'd lost his only friend, and for a few days, he simply sat around in his apartment, clunking his head against things and playing with Sammy's toys. Celestia had given him some time off, but even though he appreciated it, soon enough he realized that sitting around and doing nothing was just making things worse, and making him even more bitter. So one early morning, he slumped over to the library. He dug up a few books and hid behind them at his usual table, and eventually fallen asleep with his head on his forelegs. He'd stayed like that until someone had lightly shaken him awake, and he'd looked miserably up to see Twilight standing over him, looking down at him awkwardly. "Uh... hey." she said finally, and Scrivener only nodded a little to her, before the violet mare said quietly: "It's... well, it's almost dinnertime, Scrivy. You were here when I got in a few hours ago and... I... thought I should let you know. Some ponies have been staring." "That's different from usual." Scrivener muttered, and then the Court Poet turned his head away and dropped it back on his forelegs, sighing. "I'm just going to sulk for a little while longer. Thanks for waking me up, really, it's nice to be out of the comforting womb of darkness and in cold, lonely reality." "You're such a jerk." Twilight said softly, and then she hesitated before reaching up and touching his shoulder gingerly. "I'm... I'm sorry about what happened." Scrivener looked silently towards her... then he nodded a little, and Twilight Sparkle smiled hesitantly, opened her mouth nervously... then simply closed it and turned to quickly leave. Scrivener watched her go, then he sighed and dropped his face back in his forelegs... but twenty minutes later, he dragged himself to his hooves. On his way out, he moodily looked over to see a unicorn arguing angrily with one of the librarians at the desk, making her quail as he gestured angrily back and forth, and Scrivener grumbled before striding up to the desk. The librarian looked at him with something like horror, probably expecting the earth pony to make things worse as the unicorn continued to rant loudly about refusing to pay a late fee and demanding to sign out new books and blah blah blah. Instead, Scrivener reached across the desk to grab the date stamp and ink pad, and he smushed the stamp firmly down before patting the unicorn on the shoulder. The incensed noble turned to glare at him, and Scrivener slammed the stamp into his forehead, knocking the unicorn stumbling and into stupid silence. He began to open his mouth, and Scrivener firmly stamped the unicorn's face again, smearing another date over his ivory coat, and then another, before the unicorn stallion finally managed to skitter out of range of the earth pony, howling incredulously: "What are you doing?" "Well, it sounds like you have a little problem with remembering the date. So I'm helping you with that." Scrivener said reasonably, and when the unicorn stepped forwards, glaring furiously, Scrivener stamped the stallion's face again, making him yelp. "Now you can go look in the mirror, compare the dates stamped on your face to the dates stamped in your books, and maybe you'll finally understand that eight days is actually more than seven days, and you are, in fact, late." "Who do you think you are! You can't-" The unicorn tried to step forwards again, tried to be intimidating, and Scrivener stamped his face again. He spluttered, glared... and was stamped again the moment he opened his mouth. And then Scrivener leapt forwards, hammering the stamp in a wild flurry against the unicorn's face, and a moment later the large, brawny stallion turned and bolted for the exit with a squeal, features covered in smeared ink. Scrivener tossed the date stamp back down onto the counter, then glanced mildly at the librarian, who stared at him before the earth pony remarked mildly: "You know, I feel a lot better now. I mean, a lot better." The charcoal stallion let his eyes slide upwards towards the ceiling, and then he nodded thoughtfully once before turning and heading towards the exit himself. But the moment he stepped outside, he found two large, burly Royal Guards waiting for him, both glaring at the earth pony as the ink-splattered, stamped unicorn glared out from behind them, snapping: "That's him! Get him!" "Well, uh..." Scrivener lowered his head thoughtfully for a moment, then he looked up as if an idea had struck him, opening his mouth, and both Royal Guards frowned at him before the earth pony spun hurriedly to the side and dashed quickly off. The Royal Guards gave chase, yelling and shouting at him, but Scrivener had more than once been chased around Canterlot by angry unicorns, and he had an escape route of sorts that he often followed in these situations as he made a beeline for the throne room. And, as expected, the guards broke off the chase once he drew close to the castle's inner rooms, and the earth pony slowed his pace with a wheeze, dropping his head awkwardly. He didn't always get away with being a complete jerk to everyone, after all: unicorn nobles had no influence over him, but that didn't mean the angrier ones just sat back and took his abuse. The meaner ones liked to bully the guards into trying to arrest him or just beat on him, and the guards were much more likely to listen to a high-standing noble than a Court Poet. Scrivener, after all, couldn't be fired by anyone except Celestia, as long as he did his minimum amount of work, and he could make a nuisance of himself anywhere he wanted and no one could tell him what to do... but he also had pretty much no real authority. It probably didn't help none of the soldiers really liked him, either. Scrivener's mix of contempt for authority and strong dislike of unicorns sometimes resulted in him saying or doing very stupid things, after all, particularly when he came across pretty-boy officers who probably spent more time combing their manes than doing their jobs. Scrivener shook his head a bit, and then he glanced around: since the evening had settled in, only a few late meetings were in session, and the earth pony decided to head to wander around a little and perhaps check the schedule for tomorrow, if he should skip out on the meetings like he usually did or actually sit in his seat and pretend to take part in the discussion. Then he could go back to his apartment, and try to get some sleep. That evening was a return to Scrivener's odd idea of 'normal,' even if he continued to hurt over Sammy's loss, and still found himself often playing with the pseudodragon's toys in the weeks that followed. But it had been the first important step forwards, and in a month or so, Scrivener was mostly back to normal, floating along at his usual level of cynical, sarcastic jerk instead of being either miserable or vengeful. Twilight Sparkle was oddly relieved by Scrivener returning to normal, although she told herself it was because otherwise he was even more difficult to put up with. She then excused the fact she often had to 'put up with him' by rationalizing that they were almost always in the library at the same time, and they both tended to stick to the same areas of Canterlot Castle. Some days more than others it was easier to convinced herself she really was not a fan of Scrivener, such as the day she had been with Princess Celestia in the library. They sat at the back table with several important delegates, and Twilight was trying her best not to hyperventilate, both excited and insanely anxious as she sat beside the enormous, beautiful ivory winged unicorn, as the rainbow, ephemeral mane of the Princess flowed and twisted slowly and she calmly discussed trade routes and other business with the ambassadors from another nation. Twilight wasn't entirely sure why Princess Celestia wanted her here, but she was glad for it: any time with her mentor was time well-spent, and being trusted even just to watch the Princess at work felt like a gift. And then the violet mare caught something in the corner of her eye, and she was distracted as she saw Scrivener Blooms approaching. Her eyes slowly widened, feeling a sense of growing horror as Scrivener drew nearer... and then two Royal Guards blocked the earth pony's path and some official hurried over, speaking quickly and gesticulating violently. Scrivener glared, replied loudly, but he was far enough away she couldn't really make out the words, and Twilight sighed in relief before returning her attention with a smile to the meeting at hoof. Scrivener Blooms, meanwhile, looked sourly out at the meeting before he glared over at the official from the Royal Court, adjusting his half-cloak as he said sourly: "Do you not see this stupid thing I'm wearing? Are you dumb or something? Look, Celestia asked me-" "You will address her as Princess Celestia, with proper respect!" snapped the small, squeaky little mare, the wings of the Pegasus fluttering violently at her sides as she glowered up at him suspiciously. "This meeting is extremely important and no one may proceed past this point, and I have plenty of reasons to doubt the veracity of your statement." "No one really uses the word 'veracity' in normal talking, you know that, right? You're trying way too hard... what is that, is that a repressed lower southern accent I hear? Trying to pretend y'ain't done growned up on one o' them farms?" Scrivener asked flatly, and the Pegasus snarled at him, then turned a horrible look on the Royal Guards when one of them coughed and hurriedly turned his eyes away, covering his muzzle with a hoof and awkwardly clearing his throat. Scrivener sighed as the Pegasus opened her mouth, holding up his own hoof before he said dryly: "Fine. But before I go, I just have to do one little thing, okay?" The stallion paused as the mare looked up at him suspiciously, and then he turned his eyes past the Royal Guards before shouting as loudly as he could: "Hey, Twilight! Twilight Sparkle! I just wanted to let you know that you left your saddle and your riding crop at my apartment last night! But don't worry, I'll give them back to you... you still have my leather reins, right? Right?" Twilight turned a magnificent shade of red that Scrivener Blooms could see even from where he was standing, as the delegates fell silent and even Princess Celestia slowly closed her eyes, and Scrivener felt absurdly pleased with himself at the look of horror on the face of the Pegasus beside him before he nodded once and turned away, humming to himself as he strode calmly to the exit. Scrivener had a bounce in his step for most of the day, until the late afternoon. He'd decided to walk around the castle exterior a little, get some fresh air and just enjoy the day, and things were going great... that was, until Scrivener was suddenly covered in shadow. The earth pony had looked dumbly back and forth, since everywhere except where he was standing was perfectly bright and happy, and he wondered if he'd finally gotten so bitter he was distorting the world around him. Then a droplet of water had fallen on him, and he had looked stupidly up to see a heavy, ominous raincloud floating just above his head before a vicious, sheeting rain had begun to pour down over him. The earth pony ran back and forth, yelling incoherently as the cloud chased after him, the earth pony unable to shake off the miniature storm... and on a balcony above, Twilight Sparkle looked balefully down as she leaned over the railing, her horn glowing brightly before she shouted: "Hey, Scrivener Blooms! Princess Celestia wants to see you!" "Sparkles?" Scrivener looked incredulous, and then he spun towards the castle and glared up at her as best he could through the blinding rain, already soaked to the bone before he snapped in a strangled voice: "Oh come on, it was just a joke! I don't deserve this!" "You're right. You don't." Twilight grumbled, and then her horn glowed as she bit her tongue, concentrating... and a moment later, rain turned to blowing snow, and Scrivener yelled in frustration as a white, localized flurry whirled around him, the unicorn looking down at her handiwork as the charcoal stallion staggered around in a circle. "I can be a jerk too, Scrivener Blooms." Twilight Sparkle huffed, then turned around and stormed back into the castle as Scrivener cursed and flailed through the snow... and fifteen minutes later, the soaked, snow-covered stallion strode into Celestia's throne room, guards and nobles all staring at the charcoal earth pony as he dripped water and a few remaining wisps of dark cloud floated over his head. He looked moodily back and forth through his wet mane, ivory locks plastered over his face before he asked tiredly: "How can I be of service, Princess Celestia?" "I think that your... games... with Twilight Sparkle are starting to go just a little too far, Scrivener Blooms." Celestia said gently as she sat up a bit at the end of the hall, and then she reached a hoof up and covered her mouth, smiling despite herself at the state her Court Poet had been left in. Scrivener looked sourly through his mane at the Princess of the Sun, not doing very well at hiding his grouchiness, but this only seemed to make Celestia smile wider before she shook her head slowly. "Try and show a little restraint in the future. Perhaps you two could sit down together and just... try and talk things out." The charcoal stallion only mumbled a bit, and then he shook himself firmly, splattering water in all directions before sulkily trying to brush his mane out of his eyes. Then he glanced up as Celestia said in a more serious voice: "I need your help for the Summer Sun Celebration, Scrivener Blooms. This year in particular is very important... I already have my speech planned, but I need you to write something for me. Something special. Do you have time to meet in private late tonight?" The earth pony cocked his head curiously, and then he hesitated before nodding slowly, saying finally: "Of course, Princess Celestia. Not right now, though?" "No, not right now. This is private." the Princess replied gently, and Scrivener frowned a bit, but then shrugged before the ivory equine suggested: "Why don't you go and get some rest and dry off? I might need you to work late tonight." Scrivener nodded after a moment, bowed a bit, then turned and strode wetly off, hooves squelching with every step he took. But admittedly, he was curious about what Celestia could want... and okay, a little happy, too. One big advantage of being Court Poet was that he got to see a lot of things the public never would, and work on personal projects for Celestia as well as public ones. And best of all, she didn't seem to mind when he forgot to be ultra-polite and respectful. So maybe in spite of being soaked to the bone, today could still turn out to be a good day. Maybe, just maybe, it was a sign that things were looking up, and life could be good after all. Scrivener smiled at this thought... then sneezed loudly, and his glasses flew off his face and hit the hard floor, both lenses shattering, and the earth pony stared at the little pile of glass and metal before he dropped his head and grumbled: "Screw everything." Category:Transcript Category:Story